Well, I might as well say it.
90 percent of the time, practicing a passage “hands separate” is pointless.
Yes, it’s important to phrase each melodic line, and yes, occasionally you need to get the musculature going correctly. But otherwise, if I’m having trouble with a passage, I just practice the passage a measure or a beat at a time — and I always get it finished faster, with less effort expended.
I mean, do saxaphonists practice one hand at a time? Do runners practice one foot at a time? You are doing one thing when you play piano, not one thing with one hand and another thing with another hand…
I’ve been playing piano for twenty-three years now. I admit I have my weaknesses. My lines aren’t always perfectly phrased. I get pieces up to 80%, and often lose interest from there. I’m intellectually excited by the process of learning, but not so much by the process of perfecting. And practicing hands separate is certainly a part of perfecting a piece. It gets the line in your head. It gives you a track to run on.
But it also makes you have to go back and learn it hands together… all over again.
